The Days are Hasting On
by MegGiry-TheAlbino
Summary: SPOLIERS FOR HOUSE OF HADES. AND THE THING. DON'T EVEN OPEN THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ. As Nico looks for himself in the forests of North America, he finds something he never knew he needed...again. A sister. His only daughter of Persephone. She helps him by being the Bianca he's always needed...and helps him clear his head, and find his way. NicoxIvy. Yes, Marshall Lee is the image


A/N: So, I've had this fic planned out since Nico was first introduced. I was going to wait to do it until Nico was better explained. I thought House of Hades would do it.

Yeah. It did.

Unfortunately, I refuse to believe Nico is gay because I ship us.

So I guess I'll start now...yeah.

This doesn't really line up anywhere in the books, but Imma say it's him just out looking for himself on his own. So yeah. Kinda present day with the books but without the 7 person quest and Gaea and all that.

-x-x-x-x-

Brisk and freezing, Nico let the water of the river run through his midnight hair. His skin had lost all of the olive it once held, the icy water bleaching his skin a stark white. He shivered as he tossed the water onto his chest. The sun streamed through the trees on the cool autumn day. None of the leaves had changed yet, but all the heat of summer had no hold here. He was somewhere in Washington State, looking for other demigods on Reyna's orders. Nico let himself slip under the water, listening to it's babel sounds as they flooded around him.

He shot upright at a slight noise to his right. He was naked and cold and if a person were to walk by...

He exhaled. A doe ambled by, her whole body lithe and slender. He exhaled.

"You scared me, little doe," he sighed in relief, sitting up in the river bed. He shook out his dark hair, water droplets ran down his toned chest in their own tear-drop rivers.

"For a minute, I thought-"

He stopped. He could sense the death in the air, cutting him deep. He could taste the pomegranate in his mouth and his heart hammered. His clothes...where?...his toga couldn't be far, but where were his jeans?

She ambled into the little meadow barefoot. She was wearing a nightgown the color of pink pearls. It tumbled down to her ankles, but was ripped up the side to reveal her virgin white, lithe little legs. Her neck and arms couldn't be called lanky, but that's what they were. Her auburn hair flowed down past her waist, and it was perfectly glossy with a crown of pink lilies in her hair. Her eyes...he couldn't decide. Upon first glance they seemed a glowing emerald, but as she walked forward, the sparkled sapphire...or maybe lavender. She sang silently to herself, a compelling lullaby which drug Nico to his feet. He watched as the flowers stood erect as she walked buy, then bow to her feet.

Nico knew what she was, but he knew it had to be impossible.

Her haunting song jerked to an end abruptly as she caught side of Nico, who was not as eclipsed by the brush as he thought.

Her eyes widened.

"Oh, goodness!" she spun on her heel, and Nico lunged for his black, low-rise jeans.

"I'm so sorry!" he said, fumbling with his belt. She turned around then. Nico flushed. He'd never been half-dressed in front of a girl before.

"What are you doing here? No one is ever here! That's why-"

She stopped. Her voice caught on a musical sound. Nico swallowed.

"How much do you know? About what you are?"

She straightened, eyes narrowing. "You don't know what I am. You couldn't."

His eyes appraised her again. Her rosy cheeks gave way to red as he did so. "Oh, I know. I'm just wondering how she did it."

"You're crazy. You're just some kid. You don't even know me."

He stepped closer to her, his bare feet close to her own. "She can't leave...He's got her prisoner. She must've saved up this energy for centuries before she was able to come up with a vassal form..."

"Could you stop muttering?" She fell gracefully to the meadow floor, looking like an angel laying in the grass. He sat cross-legged before her.

"How much do you know about Greek Mythology?"

She squinted. "Like the gods and the titans? Zeus and Hades and Hercules? I went through a faze. There was a year where I was obsessed with..." she flushed. "Mythomagic. I know it's dumb."

Nico's heart did a somersault. "No. Not at all. Uh," his voice cracked. "You know the greeks had children? With mortals?"

She nodded. "Hercules, Jason. Demigods. You know the joke. The whole "90% of greek tragedies could be avoided if Zeus kept it in his pants"?"

Nico nodded, chuckling to be polite. If only she knew.

"You know Persephone?"

She nodded swiftly. "Hades wife. She ate the pomegranate-the fruit of the underworld and could never leave. The goddess of flowers." She palmed a bud tickling her foot. Nico smiled as the flower seemingly responded. He wondered if she noticed.

"Did you have parents?"

She shook her head. "I bounced from foster home to foster home. I got taken away from my dad. He was kind of a...funny uncle."

Nico's heart twisted suddenly. He didn't even know her.

"Your existence should be impossible. Persephone isn't allowed to leave. But the gods do have several forms. Perhaps Hades didn't have her as enabled as he thought..."

"Back up," she demanded. "What do you mean impossible? Why do you keep talking about mythomagic?" her rainbow eyes narrowed. "Are you saying I'm a demigod?"

Nico leaned forward, hands on his knees. "Have you ever done something? Something you know others couldn't do."

She studied him skeptically. He picked up a wilted pink bud that had fallen from the trees above them and cupped her palm with his other hand. He placed the bud there. It flourished with life on contact. But staring at the bud in her palm, she didn't stop there. She hummed as she twirled her fingers and the dead pearl pink turned a blushing rose. She pulled from the bottom, and Nico watched as a long green stem formed. The stem turned brown as patches of bark whirled around it. She rose to her feet, and Nico had another moment to marvel at her silky legs. She went to the tree, dying with the autumn winds, and pressed her branch against its thick bark. They connected with ease. The tree transformed, its bark growing thicker and browner. Patches of moss and vines twirled up it's trunk. All the leaves turned a beautiful emerald, and all the pale pink buds turned a beautiful dusty rose color.

Nico stared as she came back to him.

"Like that?" she asked, sitting so close their knees touched.

"Y-yeah," he murmured. "Need anymore...convincing?" he murmured. His sword was just a few feet away. He didn't really think she'd be willing to go with him if she saw him raise the dead...

She shook her head slowly. "I always knew there was something wrong with me."

Nico slipped closer. He thought about putting his hand over hers, but cast the idea aside.

"There's nothing wrong with you. There are hundreds-thousands of kids like us?"

Her rainbow eyes attacked him. They shifted from grey to violet and back. "Us?"

His lips twitched-his version of a smile. "I'm a child of Hades. Just like you are a child of Persephone."

She smiled. "So...we're like, step-siblings?" she asked. Was there an edge of hopefulness in her tone?

Nico nodded. He didn't point out that godly relationships had nothing to do with their demigod children. It was why Percy and Annabeth could date-the fact that Zeus, Poseidon's brother, bore Athena, Annabeth's mother, had nothing to do with them. Plus gods changed so constantly-vows and promises meant nothing. He'd often thought of the children as a reflection. When he looked in the mirror, he saw a weaker version of his father. Now, with this girl here, was she not a watered-down version of her mother?

Nico blushed, realizing what he'd insinuated-Hades and Persephone were married.

"What's your name?" he asked her softly. She grinned, and Nico liked the shape of her rosy lips as she did so. "It's Ivy. You know? Holly and the Ivy? Like the plant?"

Nico smiled. "So odd you shouldn't be named for a flower."

She shrugged. "Ivy is beautiful in it's own way. It's simple-but intricate. Wise."

Nico watched her kaleidoscope eyes dance as she thought. Rose to forest green to topaz to royal blue.

"Yes," he murmured gently. "It is."

A/N:So I'll probably be doing more of this later. Whenever I get in one of my Nico angst fits. Which has been often. So...I'll update soon? Yeah. Yeah. I'm awkward at end author's notes. Uh, Happy Thanksgiving?

Yeah, that works


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